"Xiaotao!" Yan Shaozhe darted over to the enormous block of ice.
A bone-chilling cold radiated from it. Ma Xiaotao's eyes were tightly shut, her lips were pale, and her face had turned bluish from the cold.
At once, Yan Shaozhe condensed a brilliant ball of white flame in his hand and pressed it against the ice.
But then something happened that left him dumbfounded.
"How is this possible?" Yan Shaozhe exclaimed in surprise as he saw the ice melt at an incredibly slow pace beneath the flames.
Yan Shaozhe's Martial Soul was the Bright Phoenix, a top-tier Beast Martial Soul with an innate light attribute.
The flame in his hand was the Bright Phoenix flame granted by his Martial Soul. Though it fell short of the level of Ultimate Fire, it was not far off.
Yet the flame had barely any effect on the ice before him. He couldn't help forming a suspicion.
"Could this ice actually be Ultimate Ice?" Yan Shaozhe said in astonishment.
"If this goes on, the slower the ice melts, the more danger Xiaotao will be in. Looks like I'll have to use a more drastic method. I can't worry about accidentally hurting the girl." Yan Shaozhe's expression darkened.
The next moment, the flames in his hand grew hotter.
Now the ice began melting at a speed visible to the naked eye.
At the same time, a streak of blue-green light cut across the distant sky and, in the next second, descended beside Yan Shaozhe.
The light faded, revealing two figures.
At the front was an old man, greasy from head to toe, with disheveled hair and clothes torn in several places. He held a wine gourd in his left hand and a middle-aged man in his right.
Most peculiar of all, a half-eaten chicken leg hung from his waist.
As soon as he landed, he set the middle-aged man down with his right hand, pulled the chicken leg from his waist, and took a hearty bite.
Then he glanced around. When he saw the strange Black Flames burning across the ground and Ma Xiaotao frozen inside the ice, his brows shot up.
"Shaozhe, what happened here? Why is Xiaotao frozen? Who did this?"
Seeing him, Yan Shaozhe let out a small sigh of relief. "Elder Xuan, I don't know who froze Xiaotao. That girl must have had an Evil Fire outbreak. By the time I got here after receiving the news, everything was already like this."
"The only thing I know is that the person who froze Xiaotao had a Martial Soul with the attribute of Ultimate Ice. Otherwise, this ice wouldn't be so difficult to melt."
"Oh? Ultimate Ice?" The scruffy old man's expression shifted.
He stepped forward to sense it, and sure enough, he felt the intense chill contained within the ice.
"If this was an ice-attribute Soul Master, why are there so many Black Flames? They don't resemble Xiaotao's Phoenix Evil Fire at all." The scruffy old man frowned.
Then he walked up to a patch of Black Flame blazing fiercely.
Without a trace of fear, he thrust his hand into it.
"Hm?" The next moment, the scruffy old man's expression changed dramatically. He realized that the Black Flame wouldn't go out!
He had already secretly channeled the Soul Power within him, but the Black Flame clung to his hand like a maggot on a bone, refusing to let go.
"It won't extinguish! This... this is at least the level of Ultimate Fire. No, this flame seems even more terrifying than Ultimate Fire." The old man stared at the strange Black Flame on his hand, utterly astonished.
Yan Shaozhe and Wang Yan, standing nearby, both changed expression at his words.
Ultimate Ice and Ultimate Fire, appearing at the same time and in the same place? What on earth was going on?
Could someone actually possess both Ultimate Ice and Ultimate Fire?
The situation before them was so strange that the three of them couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Just then, the ice encasing Ma Xiaotao finally melted completely beneath Yan Shaozhe's Bright Phoenix flames.
Yan Shaozhe caught Ma Xiaotao at once and checked her condition.
Her Soul Power was completely depleted, and she showed signs of frostbite inside her body. But she didn't seem to be in any immediate danger.
Only then did Yan Shaozhe relax.
"Elder Xuan, I'll leave this place to you. I have to take Xiaotao to Elder Zhuang." Yan Shaozhe gave the scruffy old man a slight nod, then turned into a dazzling streak of white light and flew toward the depths of Sea God Lake with Ma Xiaotao.
Only Wang Yan and the scruffy old man remained. Looking at the flames on the old man's hand, Wang Yan asked, "Grandmaster, why haven't you put these flames out? Is even your cultivation not enough?"
Xuanzi stared at the Black Flame on his hand and cursed under his breath. "Damn it, what kind of cursed thing is this? Why is it so hard to deal with?"
But in front of his own grand-student, Xuanzi still had to save face. He replied calmly, "Hmph, of course I can. I'm merely studying this kind of flame a little longer. Mere flames—I can snuff them out with a flip of my hand!"
The next moment, the scruffy old man stamped down hard. Two yellow, two purple, four black, and one red—nine Spirit Rings rose from beneath his feet.
Then his oil-stained clothes burst apart, and his back swelled at an astonishing speed. In the blink of an eye, he had doubled in size. Most peculiar of all, a long, spiral horn grew from each side of his head. An utterly terrifying aura burst from him.
After releasing his Godly Taotie Bull Martial Soul, the old man opened his mouth wide. A powerful suction force surged from within, drawing in the strange Black Flames on his hand and scattered across the area. They were sucked straight into his mouth.
Once he had swallowed the Black Flames, the scruffy old man returned to his previous appearance. No one noticed the bead of sweat that had appeared on his forehead.
Seeing this, Wang Yan immediately praised him. "Grandmaster, your divine might is truly unmatched!"
Xuanzi smiled calmly, but inside, a thousand alpacas were stampeding through his mind.
Damn, this flame really is bizarre. Even after I sucked it into my stomach and sealed it, I can still feel it burning.
It's giving me a bit of indigestion.
"By the way, Grandmaster, what do you think of the young man I told you about before we came here? I think he'd be a great fit for one of our academy's training programs!" Wang Yan suddenly changed the subject.
After parting ways with Huo Yuhao earlier, Wang Yan had immediately gone to find his grandmaster, the vice-master of Sea God Pavilion, Chicken Leg Douluo Xuanzi, hoping to secure better training for Huo Yuhao at Shrek Academy.
But halfway through their conversation, his grandmaster had suddenly furrowed his brow, sensing an immense surge of Soul Power somewhere in the academy. In his haste, he had simply brought Wang Yan along with him.
Now that Wang Yan saw his grandmaster was in a good mood, he hurried to bring the matter up again.
"Hm? What kind of Martial Soul does that kid have?" Xuanzi asked again.
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